Michael Collins

Michael Collins (16 October 1890-22 August 1922) was the Chairman of the Provisional Government of the Irish Free State from January to 22 August 1922, preceding W.T. Cosgrave. Collins was formerly a leader of the Irihs Republican Army and a freedom fighter, but he supported the peace treaty with the United Kingdom after the Irish War of Independence, and he was killed by the IRA during the Irish Civil War as he traveled to his home of County Cork.

Biography
Born in County Cork, Michael Collins became a member of the revolutionary Irish Republican Brotherhood while living in England. He returned in Ireland in 1916 to take part in the Easter Uprising against British rule. Arrested when the rebels surrendered, he was soon released.

Displaying great charisma, Collins became both a political and military leader of the Irish Republican independence movement. In the guerrilla warfare waged against the British authorities from 1919, he helped to found the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and ran an intelligence operation. He also led a terrorist hit squad, which assassinated 13 people, including 11 British intelligence officers, on 21 November 1920 that became known as "Bloody Sunday".

When a truce was declared in July 1921, Collins led negotiations with the British government, agreeing to the treaty that gave southern Ireland its own government, but which left six counties in the north under British rule. After the IRA rejeced the treaty, in June 1922, Collins attacked their headquarters in Dublin with artillery borrowed from the British, precipitating civil war. While acting as commander-in-chief of the government forces Collins still hoped for a compromise, but on 22 August he was ambushed and shot dead.